Aleksandr Khachunts

Head of Laboratory PhD

The laboratory is engaged in studies of the functional state (FS) of human brain, which is the actual problem of psychophysiological researches. To determine more informative criterions for many-sided assessment of FS new approaches and methods with the application of up-to-date technology are devised. The importance of the researches is the idea about availability of the close determinate relationship between control mechanism of brain and their biorhythmological organization. The biorhythmological peculiarities of short range oscillating components (second and minute periodicity) of a number of brain functions are studied:
1. process of voluntary attention, short-term memory capacity, rate of retrieval (sphere of psychophysiological regulation);
2. time of simple visual-motor response (latent period) (sphere of sensomotor regulation);
3. heart rate variability (HRV) and system hemodynamic (sphere of autonomic regulation).

The results of statistic and mathematical analysis showed the availability of close causal relationship between the functional capabilities of brain processes and the variability (instability) of psychophysiological and autonomic processes. Spectral and autocorrelation analyses revealed that prevalence of slow rhythms (≤ 0,017 Hz) in control mechanisms indicates FS low level, meanwhile predominance of rapid rhythms (≥ 0,1Hz) is expressed by high effectiveness of brain functions. Biorhythmological constituents may be reliable and informative criterions in the assessment of current FS of brain in health and disease.
Basis for the researches into the effect of different modalities sensory stimuli and their combination on psychophysiological state of a human being is being formed. Elaborations of 1) effective screening cheep methods of diagnosing diseases for adoption into practical health care; 2) methods of dynamic assessment of the operators’ state, working in extreme conditions are being held.

A new noninvasive device for intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring has been developed by Israeli company HeadSense Medical Ltd. The device, which is called the HS-1000, is now being tested in many clinics around the world, including the US, Japan, several European countries, and several clinics in Armenia